The Social Media Sutra, part 1

Bodhipaksa

Photo by Marc Schaefer on Unsplash

Recently I recorded a series of four talks for “Tricycle” magazine, discussing how tools from the Buddhist tradition can help us to overcome our addiction to social media. The talks won’t appear online until January next year but in the meantime I thought I’d turn my notes into a series of articles — probably six in total. I’ll go beyond what I said in those talks because of course as soon as you give a talk you realize all the things you could have said but didn’t!

First, though, what do I mean by social media addiction? I don’t mean simply enjoying using social media. I mean addiction in the sense of the compulsive use …

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Poison in the sugar-bowl

Bodhipaksa

Many, many years ago, when I was in my twenties, I was at the apartment of a newly divorced woman I’d just started dating when her ex dropped by unexpectedly. Awkward! Especially since she had just popped out of the house and wouldn’t be back for a few minutes!

Trying to be a good host, I offered him a cup of coffee. He accepted. I imagine he was grateful that we could diffuse this tense situation through a little social ritual.

He asked for sugar with his coffee, and I wasn’t familiar with where it was kept. But after a little searching I found a sugar-bowl and, as requested, measured out two heaped spoonfuls into …

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“Let these three expressions: I do not have, I do not understand, I do not know, be repeated over and over again.” — Padmasambhava

Bodhipaksa

One time, when I was rereading a massive Tibetan Buddhist text called the Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava, I was struck once again by the spiritual power of one particular quote: “Let these three expressions: I do not have, I do not understand, I do not know, be repeated over and over again. That is the heart of my advice.”

I quoted these words to a friend, and she was completely puzzled. “Isn’t your spiritual path all about knowing and understanding things?”

In a way it is. In a way it isn’t. I’ll say more about that in a minute. But first some background.

Padmasambhava was an Indian teacher who travelled to Tibet at …

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At times I thought I was crazy…

Bodhipaksa

It’s Bodhipaksa here, and I want to tell you (more) about…

My Big Idea!

A few months ago, realizing that offering our online meditation courses by donation was no longer viable, I came up with the idea of turning Wildmind into a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative.

The idea was that we’d have 1,500 shares available for sponsorship. When people like you sponsored these shares, for just $4 a month, they’d get access to the body of online meditation courses that I’d created over the years, along with some other perks. This would also give me the financial stability to continue to teach meditation. It’s a win/win proposition!

The Big Question: Would It Work?

I have to …

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Sitting With Bodhi: Appreciating Change

Bodhipaksa

Sitting With Bodhi is a unique form of meditation course where you have the opportunity to receive guidance from Bodhipaksa—daily, if you want.

Often change and impermanence are things we think we should reflect on. But Bodhipaksa has recorded 28 meditation sessions that will point you toward a specific aspect of change that you can observe in your direct experience. This helps to liberate us from that all-too-common sense we can have that there is something “fixed” or even “stuck” about us. It also helps us to notice the richness and fascination of ordinary experiences.

The emails begin to go out on July 15. You can enroll anytime between now and August 11. How long …

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The self-compassionate way to get things done

Bodhipaksa

A parent shaming us by comparing us unflatteringly with a sibling; a boss humiliating us in front of colleagues when a task isn’t up to their expectations; a partner repeatedly complaining about some household task we haven’t done yet: these are all attempts to “light a fire under our ass” in order to get us to achieve more. Most of us have had this ploy used against us so many times over the course of our lives that we’ve internalized this motivational strategy.

Our inner critic punishes us verbally when it thinks we’ve under-performed. It castigates us for being lazy when we haven’t gotten around to starting some task. Yet despite all this internal criticism, …

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We’re building something amazing, and we’d love to have you on board

Bodhipaksa

I’m Bodhipaksa, the founder of Wildmind, and I want to share news of a very special meditation project we’ve launched.

Wildmind is transforming into a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative.

Here’s what that means for you. By sponsoring Community Shares that start at only $4 a month, you’ll become a member of our community. As a community member you’ll get:

  • Access to all of my existing meditation courses (of which there are around 30).
  • Access to any new courses I run through Wildmind (there’s one in the works right now).
  • Membership of an international online community where you can discuss your practice and receive personal support.
  • A monthly newsletter with meditation downloads, and articles that are exclusively
…
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Overcoming resistance to meditation (a self-compassionate guide)

Bodhipaksa

There can be lots of reasons for why we avoid meditating. We might not want to experience particular feelings. We might have built up a sense of failure around our meditation practice. We might worry that doing something for ourselves is selfish. We might be concerned that if we meditate we won’t get things done. Or we might be afraid of change.

And so we find excuses not to meditate. We know it’s good for us. We’ve read news article about it. We know that we’re happier when we meditate. We intend to meditate. But we find that we avoid it. We get busy. We just can’t bring ourselves to go sit on that meditation …

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“By means of mutual kindness”

Bodhipaksa

There’s a lovely Pali word, sampiyena, which could be translated as “by means of mutual kindness.”

A beautiful expression of mutual kindness is taking place at Wildmind and transforming what we do here.

For a long time we’ve sustained ourselves by offering online courses by donation. Since there were always good months and bad months, that turned out to be a precarious way to keep the site going. As a result, a lot of energy has been diverted into figuring out how to survive, rather than just getting on with the job of teaching meditation.

So we’re moving to a different model. We’re becoming a community-supported meditation initiative, where people who feel moved …

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Seven meditative techniques to help you fall asleep

Bodhipaksa

I used to have great difficulty getting to sleep at night. Sometimes my mind would be racing, usually about something that was troubling me. Sometimes there was nothing much going on in my mind at all, but sleep would simply refuse to arrive. The worst times were when I craved sleep, but as I began to drift and dream imagery started to arise, I’d get excited and wake up again.

But that was then. Nowadays I’m usually asleep within minutes—even seconds—of my head hitting the pillow.

Along the way I built up a toolkit of techniques to help me disengage from the kind of mental activity that gets in the way of sleep and that …

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